Sunday, August 2, 2015

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Photo courtesy Food52

Food52 launches kitchen supply store Provisions

It’s hard to overstate the impact of sardines.

They were the first food to be canned en masse, the lunch staple of soldiers for a century, and more recently, the protest weapon of choice for fans disenfranchised by Showtime’s cancellation of “The Borgias”.

New York’s Food52 got its own inspiration from the fragrant, omega-3-laden fish. The recipe and content site had always had a shop of sorts, but while testing the merits of a broader push into commerce, a lighthearted post about canned sardines drove strong interest in the featured brand.

Validation like that led to Provisions, which launches today. It’s Food52’s own online kitchen supply store, featuring cookware and other goods curated by the staff.

Many items are already used in the Food52 kitchen, appearing regularly in the site’s imagery, and some, like Oakland’s Oaktown Spice Shop are exclusively distributed through Provisions.

Co-founder and former New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser thinks there’s an opportunity for commerce that’s seamlessly woven into the content experience, and doesn’t feel like a catalog.

“I don’t think we expect enough from food sites,” she told us. “People are used to getting their recipes from one place, and shopping for their kitchens in another,” she said.